Continual red tape involved protecting Spain (8)
I believe the answer is:
repeated
'continual' is the definition.
('repeated' can be similar in meaning to 'continual')
'red tape involved protecting spain' is the wordplay.
'involved' indicates an anagram (involved can mean confusing or complex).
'protecting' is an insertion indicator.
'spain' becomes 'e' (abbreviation for Espana).
'red'+'tape'='redtape'
'redtape' with letters rearranged gives 'repeatd'.
'repeatd' going around 'e' is 'REPEATED'.
(Other definitions for repeated that I've seen before include "Said again" , "Saying again" , "Iterated" , "Duplicated" , "Recurring again and again" .)